Decision Support System for strategic choices in real estate management

Real estate assets management refers to an ensemble of heterogeneous data, which need different deepening levels and uses modalities. Hence each actor of the building process, as designers, construction companies, maintenance operators, administrators, investors and users, performs different approaches to assess an asset, even if they aim at the same objective: to control the technical and economic adequacy of a building and its parts (both considering new constructions and existing buildings). A significant limit is given by the necessity of providing the appropriate ways to associate and interpret the various data gathered and available; often information about an asset condition can be easily understood by a technician, but they are not useful for a building/portfolio manager. The same is true also for economic/financial assessments, not always recognised by the technical assessment. In this context some tools and procedures for Building Condition Assessment (BCA) have been developed, both in terms of technology and documents available, with the aim of defining a precise picture of the asset; this supports the definition of maintenance plans (including costs) and the production of missing and out-of-date documents (both for safety and asset knowledge). In a second step, both the asset condition and the maintenance operations are used to assess the variation in the asset value; this can vary depending on the type of operation(s) hypothesised. All these steps are performed thanks to a standardised procedure that guides users in their choices. In addition to this, a tool to verify assets adaptability (ability of a building and its part to accommodate changes over) is under test. This can help to understand the true potential of an asset, guiding users in their choice, according their needs.